Surrounding persons, places, and events of Christ's birth were all historical. Albright wrote, 'We can already say emphatically that there is no long any basis for dating any book of the New Testament after about AD 80, two full generations before the date between 130 and 150 given by the more radical New Testament critics of today.' (, 136). Ignatius referred to six Pauline epistles in about 110, and between 110 and 150 Polycarp quoted from all four gospels, Acts, and most of Paul's epistles.

Luke goes to great pains to note that Jesus was born during the days of Caesar Augustus (Luke 2:1) and was baptised in the fifteenth year of Tiberius. Elsewhere Albright said, 'In my opinion, every book of the New Testament was written by a baptised Jew between the forties and eighties of the first century (very probably sometime between about AD 50 and 75)' ('Towards a More Conservative View,' 3). Shepherd of Hermas (115-140) cited Matthew, Mark, Acts, 1 Corinthians, and other books.

This is precisely what Luke claims in the prologue to his Gospel: Many have undertaken to draw up a record of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who were eye-witnesses and servants of the word.

Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught Luke presents the same information about who Jesus is, what he taught, and his death and resurrection as do the other Gospels.

At the latest they were all composed within the lifetimes of eyewitnesses and contemporaries of the events. This fragment of John's gospel survives from within a generation of composition.